SBOING is innovativecollaborative"navigation beyond"

SBOING.NET is an innovative, collaborative Web-2.0 / Web-3.0 technology for the collection, processing and distribution of traffic data to provide improved routing capabilities for GPS navigation.

Users record their routes and exchange them with free navigation software and world maps, utilizing a credit-based system. After sophisticated processing of the user traces and other contributions, SBOING maintains an active database of traffic data for the entire planet and uses it to perform more accurate routing and offer faster map updates for its users and other GPS-navigation applications.

Πως λειτουργεί;

Register

Record

Upload Traces

Get advanced map data

SBOING™ works in 5 easy steps:

Get a FREE SBOING™ trace-logger for your navigator

Collect traces, while driving around

Upload your traces and earn credit ("Sboing Credit Units", or SCU)

Exchange the accumulated credit (or buy SCU) with updated maps.

Use FREE SBOING™ navigation software to read the advanced SBOING™ maps and take advantage of the more accurate SBOING™ routing!

The SBOING™ methodology

Today’s Portable Navigation Devices (PNDs), based on GPS receivers and using static maps are updated at relatively regular intervals, with or without a subscription service. These maps are based almost entirely on static data and, although they are updated periodically by their vendors, their use has several drawbacks, including: - Costly map upgrades (after the initial free offer of the service) - Lack of details and new information - Lack of dynamic data (e.g., traffic conditions on certain days and times of day, traffic lights and waiting time for them, etc.).

The SBOING Concept

Instead of the static speed limit of a road used by today’s navigators, the SBOING technology is based on a collaborative methodology, which consists of the statistical recording, for each road section, of the average travelling time for every vehicle type, weather conditions, day of the week and time of day. Thus, for example, for a 100m section of road XYZ average travel time may be 40 sec., on Tuesday afternoon, or 15 sec., on Sunday morning, etc.

While driving, the GPS unit records and stores a number of parameters, including the vehicle’s GPS position (GPS coordinates), velocity, altimeter and timestamp.

The user subsequently uploads its collected traces to the SBOING web-site and in return (s)he gets updated maps for its PNDs, through a “credit-debit” system (based on credit units, which are called SBOING Credit Units, or SCUs).

The uploaded data undergoes certain statistical validity checks, carried out by the SBOING backend, (to filter out any malicious or invalid data) and it is statistically integrated inside SBOING’s database and world maps.

Based on its collected credit units, each user can download at will maps and SBOING traffic data for any region of the world, through SBOING’s web-site.

Advantages of the SBOING Technology

The time-variant data, collected and used according to the SBOING technology:

Lead to more accurate routing decisions compared to existing commercial PNDs, which are based on static traffic information (e.g., the speed limit, etc.),

Have better scalability properties, compared to other real-time approaches, as it is worldwide in scope. Most other approaches rely on tracking only certain roads due to practical constraints and to the high cost of establishing the proper sensor infrastructure for the data collection,